Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Angola and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Simply Red to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Oppenheimer Analysis. All the underground hits.
All Vainqueur tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lebanon Hanover record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Urselle record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kayak,
Fad Gadget,
Animal Collective,
The Gladiators,
Heaven 17,
Jacques Brel,
Niagra,
Ronnie Foster,
the Bar-Kays,
Angry Samoans,
The Grass Roots,
Khruangbin,
Pere Ubu,
Toni Rubio,
Livin' Joy,
Nick Fraelich,
Yaz,
Sun Ra,
B.T. Express,
Nik Kershaw,
Agent Orange,
Dawn Penn,
Peter and Kerry,
Camouflage,
The Walker Brothers,
Lyres,
Matthew Bourne,
Dark Day,
Lightning Bolt,
Dorothy Ashby,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Slackers,
Josef K,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Judy Mowatt,
Tropical Tobacco,
Fatback Band,
Mantronix,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
World's Most,
the Association,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Human League,
Albert Ayler,
Goldenarms,
Massinfluence,
Ossler,
Aural Exciters,
Deakin,
Boredoms,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Real Kids,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Country Teasers,
Steve Hackett,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Pantytec,
The Move, The Move, The Move, The Move.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.